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Help: Gap between stand and bottom of rimless aquarium

Nathan G

Member
Joined
9 Aug 2019
Messages
32
Location
Canada
Hi, I've recently got into the hobby, listened to many podcasts, and been doing a lot of learning about aquascaping. This is something I've discovered I'm quite passionate about! I currently have a low tech 4 gallon aquarium that I've been learning on, and over the past several months have been planning a acquiring what I need for a bigger high tech aquarium.

The specs:
  • FireAQUA 25 gallon rimless (60 x 40 x 40 cm, 8mm thick)
  • The matching stand for it
  • Eheim 600 classic canister filter
  • Hydor inline heater
  • co2art Pro-SE regulator
  • co2art inline atomizer diffuser
  • Chihiros A series LED
I was all excited to scape it and fill it, when to my frustration I discovered that there's a small gap between the top of the stand and the edge of the aquarium in a couple places. I've got it sitting on top of the mat the aquarium came with, but I don't think that will help the problem. I just want to ensure I won't have a leak or glass break/flood at some point down the road given the weight will be ~300lbs once scaped and filled.

From the research I've done, sounds like there are several options:
  1. Do nothing and use with the mat as is
  2. Buy a medium soft 1cm thick white piece of styrofoam from a hardware store and cut to size
  3. Buy a rigid piece of styrofoam (pink?) from a hardware store and cut to size
  4. Buy a thick (18mm?) piece of plywood, add shims underneath the plywood where necessary, paint it, somehow secure to the top of the stand, rest aquarium on top of it with perhaps the mat that came with it
  5. Plane the top of the stand with a hand planer to bring it to level
From what I understand, it's most important to have support on the four corners / around the edge, so this isn't looking good for me. My instinct says either 4 or 5, but both those options are more work, with DIY skills necessary that I don't really have. Or perhaps this is a lot of concern over very little.

I realize there may be a few other posts out there similar, but wanted to get clarity for my situation. Any advice would be really appreciated!

I've taken some pictures to illustrate...

The tank and stand:
Tank and Stand.jpg


Back corner with the mat underneath:
Back Corner w Mat.jpg


Back corner without the mat underneath:
Back Corner wo Mat.jpg


Front corner without the mat underneath:
Front Corner wo Mat.jpg


A level piece of wood resting diagonally:
Level Wood Diagonal.jpg
 
I’d consider this gap too extensive for longterm soundness
Do you have insurance that will replace aquarium and stand and contents and cover all water damages?

Sent you a pm ;)

None of the Styrofoams you mention, offer suitable physical support
With some effort, the plywood could work - I’ll try to find the appropriate thread with detailed instructions

If you plane the Stand, any warranty will be void
+ you’ll need to waterproof after
 
Your tank must be 100% supported underneath, your gaps look far to big for foam/mat to compensate for. Any twisting/bowing of the bottom pane of glass makes it prone to cracking as well as putting extreme stress on the side panels silicone joints.

My mate placed his 120l tank on an old chest of drawers on a sheet of foam, no problems he thought. The weight was too much and unbeknown to him a rear leg of the unit started collapsing. This cause the bottom of the tank to be "twisted" and caused silicone to tear on opposite top corners of the tank. He first noticed damp appearing on mat at rear of tank, followed by drips of water.

Anyway placing tank on a proper built unit (he made the unit) and replacing the torn silicone fixed the issue.
 
No good! You need to figure out whether it is the glass that is twisted or the stand but as it is you are exposing yourself to a catastrophe, with or without mat.

Whatever is twisted go where you bought it and change it. Bring your level to make sure what you are getting is square and even. If what you bought is second hand then either plane or plywood are both options but you need to waterproof it afterwards.
 
My bet, having seen it many times before on UKAps, is your floor is not flat & even and the cabinet is just flexing to the floor levels

By the looks of how it is not sitting flat on the stand I don't see how that could be a problem of floor level alone. If that was the case he would still have a flat surface, although not parallel to the floor, but inclined to one of 4 sides. In this case the tank is clearly not contacting the flat surface of the wood on 2 points.
 
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I'd be willing to bet this is a problem with the stand

To build an aquarium that looks straight with a twisted bottom would be a challenge. To check measure each of the panes of glass individually across the diagonal (corner to corner), then the opposite diagonal corners on the same pane of glass. If the measurements are the same that pane is square. If all 4 panes are square (front, back, left and right) the tank cannot be twisted, as if it was the vertical corners of the aquarium just wouldn't line up

Separately, and if you have a spirit level, move the tank and cabinet and put that on your floor and check to see what's going on. Check the level front to back, left to right and on the diagonal (front left to back right then the opposite) and that will tell you how your floor is doing. As has been said though, an uneven floor (unless the cabinet physically rocks) cannot be the issue and even then that would suggest if the cabinet has taken on the undulation of the floor it's a very weak cabinet to have flexed at this stage (when the tank is empty and there is no real weight in it)

You could then put the cabinet only back (remove the tank from the cabinet) and follow the same process as the floor on the top of the cabinet by comparison

Don't fill the tank up as it is now - that's only going to fail (sooner or later)
 
My guess is either the back left and front right have a gap or the opposite; back right and front left - if this is the case then it's your cabinet sat twisted as other people have said and is a case of either packing underneath the cabinet although you should really pack along the whole length of the support; not just front right for example.

If this isn't the case and you are sure your piece of wood is straight try the following and see what you come up with.

It would be a good idea to show the full cabinet and how it's made up also possibly including from underneath.



direction.jpg
 
Thanks for everyone's advice! It sounds like what I need to start off with is to use a level to check the aquarium and stand on all sides (I have a small one, will need to pick up a longer one for better accuracy), as well as the floor. I know the floor is not fully level because when I first got the stand, it rocked just a touch. But when I put felt on all bottom surfaces of the stand, the rocking stopped.

Once thing I realized I forgot to mention in my original post is that once I did fill it with water while it was on the stand (after the felt bottom was applied, so no rocking occurred) to do a leak test. I let it sit for several days, maybe a week. The water level was slightly off level (bubble was just touching one edge of the left center line. I'm certain this didn't cause the gap as I noticed it prior to filling the tank with water. In fact, the gap remained the same when the tank was filled with water.

Will follow up and let everyone know what I find about the levelness of the stand and aquarium.
 
I've measured all diagonals of the aquarium (corner to corner) and it looks good. The front and back are 723mm, the left and right 566mm, and the top and bottom are 721mm.

I also measured the stand top to bottom on the two side and rear panels, three top to bottom measurements per panel, and all were 749mm, though one might have been 750mm.

What I notice is when laying the spirit level on the top of the aquarium left to right, there is a small bow/hump on the centre left. I can rock the level left to right over this hump. I think just the top of the stand is the culprit. The following diagram describes this roughly:

Aquarium Top.jpg


When I asked the LFS I bought this stand and aquarium from about this issue, they've responded that
- the few mm gap will be solved with a 1cm white foam (not rigid, but a bit soft) underneath as the pressure will be distributed by the compression of the foam when there is water
- no point load will occur with foam
- the bottom panel is designed to flex; as long as the water is level, the aquarium 1 year warranty will be valid

I don't want to risk it though. My LFS will check with the wholesaler if anything can be done about the stand (though I'm not holding my breath).
 
Hi Nathan,
Thanks for everyone's advice! It sounds like what I need to start off with is to use a level to check the aquarium and stand on all sides (I have a small one, will need to pick up a longer one for better accuracy), as well as the floor. I know the floor is not fully level because when I first got the stand, it rocked just a touch. But when I put felt on all bottom surfaces of the stand, the rocking stopped.

Once thing I realized I forgot to mention in my original post is that once I did fill it with water while it was on the stand (after the felt bottom was applied, so no rocking occurred) to do a leak test. I let it sit for several days, maybe a week. The water level was slightly off level (bubble was just touching one edge of the left center line. I'm certain this didn't cause the gap as I noticed it prior to filling the tank with water. In fact, the gap remained the same when the tank was filled with water.
I'm unsure if I confused you; the panels will stay square but the cabinet construction will twist if the floor is not completely flat which the second sketch might help demonstrate. It sounds like the floor is not flat from what you say about the rocking, felt is probably not the best thing to pack up a cabinet given there's probably 100kg sat on top of it.
Can you show us the whole cabinet and what it's sat on?

There's 2 potential problems that stand out to me:
-the cabinet top not flat; have you sourced a longer straight edge and followed my suggestion to see if the cabinet top is flat following the arrows? This is to try and rule out both a hump in the middle of the cabinet top but also whether the cabinet is sat right, remember any problems will only get worse when you add water to the aquarium. If you see a hump in the middle it could be worth moving the cabinet and standing it on top of something you know is flat (a table maybe), ensure there's none of the felt underneath and try seeing if the bottom sits completely flat on the table at the bottom for starters then repeat the 8 trials with a straight edge. You could always try these 8 trials on the bottom of the aquarium with that on something flat although I very much doubt that's the culprit
-the floor; you said yourself it rocked when you first got it which is kind of screams out to me that the floor is not flat which in turn would then twist given 100kg sat on top of it.

Try these tests and see what you come back with


fisher gap.jpg
fisher gap1.jpg
 
Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the clarification. I've picked up a long enough spirit level to do those eight tests. I also found a table at home I confirmed was flat with a spirit level and placed the stand on that. To my surprise, the stand itself rocked on the flat surface front to back! So it wasn't just the floor, but seems to also be the stand. You may notice some imperfections in the pictures, what the owner thought was that this stand may have been on display at the wholesalers' (not visible in the pictures, but there are some scuffs on the top of the stand). I confirmed the bulge on the top is still there whether it was on the flat surface of the table, or the floor. See the flat tests below.

First, more pictures of the stand...

On the hardwood floor where it will be:
Stand - Floor.jpg


Side and back of the stand:
Stand - Side and Back.jpg


Bottom of the stand:
Stand - Bottom.jpg


The stand rocking on the flat surface...

Stand rocking position down:
Stand Rocking 1.jpg


Stand rocking position up:
Stand Rocking 2.jpg


Flat test - front view - level positioned at the back:
Front View - Level Back.jpg


Flat test - front view - level positioned in the middle:
Front View - Level Middle.jpg


Flat test - front view - level positioned at the front:
Front View - Level Front.jpg


Flat test - left side view - level positioned at far side:
Left Side View - Level Right Side.jpg


Flat test - left side view - level positioned in the middle:
Left Side View - Level Middle.jpg


Flat test - left side view - level positioned at the close side:
Left Side View - Level Left.jpg


Flat test - diagonal 1:
Diagonal 1.jpg


Flat test - diagonal 2:
Diagonal 2.jpg
 
Exactly what I said earlier. The top is twisted/bulged or whatever the qualification you want to give it but it’s not flat/level. The bottom also seems to have suffered some water damage and is also not uniform. If water did infiltrate the wood, that's really not good as the structural integrity of the stand is compromised.
No need for complicated measurements. That stand is no good in my opinion. It would be me I wouldn’t waste time fixing this simply because when I buy something new it should be in good working order and as it is, it's not. I would ask for a replacement unless of course you got this with a discount because of its second hand condition.
 
Just remember to take everything I say with a pinch of salt, I'm also not there in person to look or know the full details.
It seems there's a couple of problems combined causing issues here; the top is bowed and cabinet is twisted.
the owner thought was that this stand may have been on display at the wholesalers'
Just to be clear; you brought this as new and the cabinet's meant to be a new one made by FireAqua?
I'd imagine it's now too late to do anything with the retailers as you've had the aquarium full of water on it if it is then there are possible ways to fix this but it would all depend on your DIY and understanding.

I'd started to explain a few things but think it's a waste of time for now, if you get nowhere with the retailer then you can probably swap the top, take the twist out and deal with the damage on the underside along with protect it from further damage.
I can try and point you in the right directions.
 
If the cabinet was purchased as a discounted item.....with cosmetic damage, scratches,dings,marks etc.
It should still be fit for the purpose purchased for.....which it is not.

Ask for a replacement;).
Stand your ground!!!
hoggie
 
Sadly, I paid full price for the stand.

Thanks Andrew for pointing out the water damage. I didn't catch that. I'm actually able to slightly "squish" the plywood on the bottom left side where the water damage is. I've also discovered the left side of the stand also isn't completely flat (I confirmed the right side is flat). This picture shows the stand lying down near the top:
Left Side of Stand.jpg


I've sent all this info including a video of the squishiness to the store owner asking how he'll resolve the issue for me. Ideally I would get an exchange. If he chooses to do nothing, I'll likely pursue a diy option to fix everything, and will take my business elsewhere.
 
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